


Freed Memories

by StevetheIcecube



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Companionship, Friendship, Gen, Memory Loss, Post-Game, Recovery, Trauma, story spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-17 06:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10588713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Everything is over. They won, but still Link struggles to find his place in this world. To get through it all, he turns to Zelda for help, and in return Zelda can start to heal.





	1. Parents

“Do you really remember me?” She asked, and Link felt like his heart had stopped. He didn’t remember much at all, but in almost all of his memories there was Zelda.

“More than anyone else,” he told her. That, at least, was the truth. He was exhausted and honestly didn’t think he could manage too many words. He wanted to get on his horse, ride to the nearest stable, and collapse. “Mostly everything is gone, but the photos you left on the Slate, and the one with Impa…”

Zelda nodded. She looked exhausted and heartbroken too. It must be quite a weight to finally be back into reality after all this time. “I think going back to the castle can wait a day,” she said. “Can we find somewhere to go for now?”

“Of course, Princess,” he said, trying to smile. They had won. They had defeated Ganon, this was the end, and everything was going to be okay.

-

“Do you want me to help you with your memories?” She asked one night. This was their third night at the inn, and they’d been so far unwilling to leave. They were both absolutely exhausted and Link was struggling to shake off the lingering fear from the battle that could have cost them everything.

They’d both been spending most of their time outside, and this was the third time in an hour that Zelda had glanced over and Link had been staring at one of the photos on the Slate. “If you don’t mind,” he said. Every so often when he looked at her, he felt the crushing feeling of an instinct to kneel to her, but she had said after the second time that there wasn’t really a Hyrule or a princess or an order of knights, so he didn’t need to.

“Where do you want to start?” She asked, shuffling slightly up the incline they were sitting on so she could see over his shoulder.

“This one,” he said, indicating the dark picture with two statues underneath a tree. “This one is the only indication I ever had of my family and I wanted to know if you knew any more?”

Zelda nodded, a faint frown on her face. “That was when I asked you if you’d ever not wanted to be a knight?” She asked. Link supposed all the questioning of her fate was completely different now she had succeeded. “About a week later we had a talk about that, actually.”

That was exactly what he wanted to hear. “What did I say about him?” He asked. He wanted to know what kind of person his father had been. From the sound of it, he’d been a great man.

“You didn’t like him very much,” she said, and his heart sank. It hurt a little to see that his past self didn’t really have many personal connections. “You lived somewhere to the east, I never actually asked you where so I couldn’t tell you, and you wanted to be an ambassador. Your father pushed you into training at a very young age, and you told me you’d been sent down that path before you even realised it.”

“An ambassador to the Zora?” He asked. None of this sat right with him. He had received the impression that he admired his father and had always wanted to be a soldier. That was the way everyone else had painted him.

“Yes,” she said. “I think, probably, you were hoping that you could do that when everything was over.” She paused for a moment. She was probably thinking about how that had never came to be. “You could probably still do that, though! Zora have long life spans, some of them must remember you, and they always loved you.”

Link shook his head. “I don’t remember it,” he said. “I just- I never imagined that I never wanted to be a knight. It’s been the only thing I’ve found natural since waking up.” At first, everything else except survival had been a struggle. Since then, he hadn’t improved too much at anything. When he was fighting was the only time he felt natural.

“It’s always been what you found natural,” she said. “I think you started formal training from about twelve, but I can’t remember exactly what you said. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “What about my mother? Did I ever mention her?” She had never showed up in any memories and no one he’d spoken to had ever mentioned her. Maybe he hadn’t spoken about them much to other people?

Zelda shook her head. “From the way you never spoke about her, I presumed she just wasn’t in the picture and I never asked in case it was painful.”

Link sighed and stared down at the Slate again. She was absent too, then. He had never spoken about her, not even once? Did anyone know anything about him at all? He knew he certainly didn’t. “I don’t know myself,” he said, handing the Slate over to Zelda. “I’m going to go for a ride, but I’ll be back before dinner.”

“No!” Zelda immediately stood up, standing over him before he could make a further move. “No. I- can’t I come with you?” She asked. “I don’t much like being alone.” Link hesitated, and she spoke again. “I won’t bother you, but when I’m silent and alone all I can hear is the gurgle of the Malice.”

Well, when he said that he couldn’t refuse and continue to be a good person. “You can come,” he said. “I don’t even mind if you talk, I just- I don’t want to.” Holding conversations was hard because he hated speaking. And in this conversation all his speaking had just ended in disappointment.

“Thank you,” Zelda said, and she ran to go and get the horses. Link watched her, that little spring in her step, the smile when he said she could come. Maybe he didn’t know himself now, but he was sure that, with time, she could help him learn.


	2. Horses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link and Zelda go on a ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the response to the last chapter! I went away for a couple of days so I couldn't work on it, but here's the next chapter.

“I always hated riding horses,” Zelda said. “Because most of the time it was quite passive, but I couldn’t do anything else.” Link looked over to her. It had been about five minutes since he started off in whichever direction he fancied. He knew they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere too dangerous within an hour, so he was content to just let Epona take the lead. “You loved riding, though. Every evening and every morning when I was sulking, you’d take your horse out for exercise.”

Link looked down at Epona, who’d been there through everything. He’d picked up a few horses along the way, but she was the fastest horse he’d ever had the pleasure to ride. “I think you said she was called Epona.”

He looked up at her in surprise, and gestured to the horse he was sitting on. “She’s called Epona too? You must have remembered that somehow, though I wouldn’t be able to tell you how.” She looked at her own horse, supposedly the descendant of the one she owned so many years ago. “My horse’s name was Luminen.” This horse was a girl, and Link had been too embarrassed to admit that he’d named her Zelda.

“You know, this is more what it was like when you and I were travelling together,” Zelda said. “It was so strange to hear you speak so often.” Link turned to her and gave her a questioning glance. No one else had ever mentioned that it was strange that he spoke, but he supposed he never stuck around for long. “You once told me that speaking didn’t come naturally to you anymore because there was so much pressure to hold it together. You were afraid of showing emotions and then it got harder and harder to speak.”

Link didn’t reply, but he hoped Zelda understood. He’d presumed that speaking was something he’d lost a natural inclination for because he’d been sleeping for so long. He’d presumed that, as everyone was keen to talk his ear off, he was meant to speak more. He thought he would get better with practise, but he hadn’t, and he’d felt pretty bad about it. Like something had gone wrong and the Zelda he met at the end was going to be disappointed.

“Do you see me half as a stranger?” Zelda asked after a few minutes of silence. Link knew he couldn’t do anything but nod. He had seen some intimate moments in Zelda’s life, but he still didn’t feel like he knew her. He knew her better than any other figure in the past, but she was a stranger nonetheless.

Zelda sighed. “I was afraid of that,” she said. “I knew you had no memory, but I had hoped that maybe you would have a little more. It was wrong of me to expect that.”

“I don’t mind,” he managed. He’d expected a little more of himself, honestly. He wished he could have found more of Zelda before he’d rescued her.

“You’re not so different, though,” Zelda said. Link knew that was a lie. Zelda hid it pretty well, but he knew that she was bothered by how little he knew and how he struggled with everything. “But I think you should let yourself speak more with your actions. You don’t have to try so hard with speaking. And I know we’re meant to be restoring the kingdom, but...it can wait. Really.”

Now she was really lying. He knew how much Hyrule mattered to her, and he knew how much it upset her that the kingdom lay in ruins still after so long. But he didn’t want to say anything, didn’t want to tell her that he knew she was just trying to hide her feelings. If Zelda wanted to wait, they could. He was here to follow and protect her, and honestly he felt lost without that goal in mind.

“I have a house,” he said. He knew that she probably wouldn’t want to move so far from the castle, but he...he wanted to. He needed this. The start he needed was, he thought, stability. And they needed a base that they weren’t paying for every night. He knew that he shouldn’t be thinking of money, but he was. They needed money for everything and one day it would run out. That day would come sooner if they stayed in an inn every night.

“Really? How did you manage to get a house?” He shrugged, because honestly he didn’t remember how he’d ended up buying a house. It had sort of been a joke when he’d suggested he could buy the house, but then he’d ended up with a lot of money and lots of wood so he just thought why not.

“It’s in Hateno Village,” he said. Zelda nodded. “We could set out tomorrow.” It would be a ridiculously long journey and would involve making camp for at least one night, probably, but they’d also be a bit closer to Kakariko Village than they were now and that was definitely a place they would have to check. Purah was also probably still in Hateno Village, so that would work out too.

“That would be nice,” she said. “I never went to Hateno Village. We...we never quite made it.” Link remembered that. He remembered Blatchery Plain. Even thinking of it was painful. It made his head feel strange and light. He hadn’t seen it from his view, but there was...he remembered the feeling. He remembered the end and just thinking about it made him feel wrong.

“Link?” Zelda managed to pull him back into the present. “I’m sorry. Let’s get off the horses and you can calm down.” Link looked down and his hands were shaking and he couldn’t stop them.

Zelda slowed her horse to a stop and dismounted. Link got Epona to stop too, but for some reason he couldn’t work out how to get off. He was meant to be dead and his legs wouldn’t stop shaking and everything was terrifying all of a sudden. “Hang on,” Zelda told him, briefly taking Epona’s reins and throwing them over a tree branch. “It’s okay, Link. We’re safe here.” She stretched her arms out to him. “You lean forward so your head is almost touching her neck and then you can swing your right leg over here. I’ll catch you if you fall down.” There was no way Zelda would be able to catch him and not fall to the ground herself and there was no way he could hurt her like that, but he had no choice. He would just have to land properly.

Five minutes later saw the pair of them lying on the grass next to each other, watching the sky. They’d left the horses to graze for a few minutes as they both attempted to calm down. The whole situation had devolved into laughter as Link had fallen on the ground and Zelda had actually completely missed catching him. Now they were both slightly dusty and covered in grass, but Link didn’t mind at all.

“I’m really sorry I mentioned that,” Zelda said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. “I had no idea...I knew you’d seen it again, but I had no idea it would give you such a strong reaction.”

“It was bad,” Link agreed. He didn’t want to tell her what had happened after he’d first recalled the memory. He had collapsed and there had been moments where it felt like he was dying all over again. The feelings had lingered for days and he had to avoid as much combat as he could during those times.

“After that, I travelled with some of the Sheikah to the Castle,” she said. “I don’t remember anything after I saw Castle Town. It’s a blur and there’s just...nothing at all. Nothing until I felt you wake again, and even then it was only snatches of being aware. And then there was you. You were right there, and everything was...it was over.”

Link just nodded. He remembered that as clearly as anything. The sudden freedom, and the rush of joy when he saw Zelda. Joy, but also recognition. He remembered her, and he was now seeing her in real life. He saw her not just in memories and not as a spirit, but alive. Alive, and wonderful.

“We should probably go back soon,” Zelda said, looking at how the sun was slowly progressing towards setting fully. “But I wanted to ask you something. Next time you have a nightmare, will you get me up so we can talk through it?”

So she’d heard him. He couldn’t sleep at all at night. Every couple of hours he was shocked awake and he never had any idea if he’d been loud in his sleep or not. He would just get out of bed and sit outside for quarter of an hour before going back to bed again. “If you’ll do the same,” he said. A couple of times, he’d seen Zelda staring blankly at the ceiling when he’d woken up.

“Deal,” she said after a moment of thought. Then Link’s stomach grumbled, and the serious mood vanished. “I think your stomach wants to go back to the stable,” she said, and he laughed and pushed himself up. He offered her his hand to help her up, and she took it with nothing more than a smile.

Maybe one day they’d be able to move on and they could finally be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is curious, they're currently at the Riverside Stable, and I strongly support the headcanon that the house you can buy in Hateno Village used to be Link's. If you're ever in need of a visual guide for BotW, Zelda Dungeon have a fantastic interactive map which I use all the time for writing.


	3. Relics of the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link and Zelda start off towards Hateno Village, and for the first time Zelda asks him about those they knew before.

“What did we do when we were travelling together before?” Link asked. They had set out in the direction of Hateno Village about a day ago and they were just getting moving after taking down their camp. He’d just spotted the full length of the Duelling Peaks in the distance and he was reminded of following Zelda silently as she spoke of their goals.

“We journeyed across Hyrule to help the Champions with everything they needed,” Zelda said. “At least, that was our primary goal. You usually ended up running errands for them. They were often the most prominent people in their communities other than those who headed their people, but when they had to focus on the Divine Beasts, you just ran around doing all their other jobs for them.”

Link laughed. Clearly not much had changed then. He’d spent half of the time journeying Hyrule alone just collecting things for people and killing monsters for them. “Anything else?” He remembered a lot of Zelda taking pictures. He knew those were the focal points for the memories so he was likely to see a lot of that, but he didn’t imagine that photography was the only thing the people of Hyrule wanted them to do.

“I will admit that I spent a lot of time indulging my own interests,” Zelda admitted. “I was tired of the pressure my father put on me to pray all the time. I used to pray for at least six hours a day when I was in the castle.” Her voice sounded heavy. Link remembered how he had felt when watching Zelda face off against her father; how he was aware of the lost potential in Zelda’s earlier years. “I made sure we spent as much time away as possible, and I liked to do the things that interested me. I don’t think you minded too much, but do you know? Do you remember how you felt about it?”

Link was silent for a moment. Preparing his response was hard because he had no exact feelings. “I didn’t approve of how your father restricted you,” he said. “Also I was very scared of him, I think.” The flickers of memory that had stirred when Rhoam told him who he was gave him that much. He got more of that from the memory with Zelda talking to her father.

“I showed you the cloisters, didn’t I?” Zelda asked after a moment. “When I argued with my father. I always hated the way you had to act around him. I’ve never seen you act so little like yourself.” He nodded. Though he still had that urge to kneel in front of Zelda and always defer to her, it was nothing compared to how he remembered feeling around Rhoam. He didn’t know what in his past had caused that instinct that didn’t go away with his amnesia, but he felt like he didn’t really want to know.

“Do you want to see if we can find more places that will help you regain your memories?” Zelda asked. “I know it’s something that means a lot to you.”

Link nodded again. So often he felt as if he was two people at once. The Link who came before was definitely him, there was no way for him to doubt that, but he was still so empty. There was a disconnect between that man and the person he was now because he couldn’t understand the actions he remembered seeing or all the things he remembered feeling. “There have been places that reminded me of things,” he said, “but I don’t know how to make those things into memories.”  
“Are the Sheikah researchers still alive?” Zelda asked. The question seemed to come out of nowhere. Zelda hadn’t asked much about the state of Hyrule now, she’d just been content to make sure that she was still okay and there wasn’t anything that had gone wrong with her body while she had fought Calamity Ganon. Link was pretty sure she was trying to avoid what she knew she must do to help Hyrule rise again.

“Purah and Robbie?” He asked. They were the Sheikah in the labs he’d seen while travelling. He had no idea if there was anyone else he’d missed or anyone else he’d been too late to save.

“And Impa,” Zelda said. “Impa, Robbie and Purah used to research with me all the time, and they were the Sheikah who took you to the Shrine of Resurrection.”

Link smiled. He couldn’t really imagine Impa being a researcher. “Impa is the head of the Sheikah Tribe now,” he said. “She’s in Kakariko Village and we could go and see her before we go to Hateno Village if you like.”

“Please,” Zelda turned to look directly at him. Link quickly checked the road just in case it wasn’t clear. “Please, I was so worried about all of them. Where are Purah and Robbie?” To Link, it seemed like there was a little more to it than that, but he wasn’t going to ask yet.

“Purah lives in Hateno Village with her research assistant,” he said. He couldn’t wait to see what Zelda thought about the age reversal that Purah had managed. “Robbie lives with his wife in the far north east, in Akkala.”

“Wife?” Zelda started laughing. “You’re telling me that Robbie is married? I bet you’re going to tell me he has children too, or something silly like that.”

“He has a son called Granté,” Link said with a smile. “He lives just south of where Robbie is based, in a newly formed town.” Zelda just looked at him again.

“You’re joking,” she said. “Please tell me that Purah doesn’t have children.”

“Not that I know of,” he said. He’d vaguely known that he had known those people, but he’d never realised that he must have known them closely. He would have spent time with them when he was with Zelda. Before he showed up in front of them, the last time they would have seen him was when he was dead. “Impa’s granddaughter lives in Kakariko Village, though.”

“Impa had children,” Zelda moaned, covering her face. Link got the distinct feeling that she was getting upset and the hilarity of the situation was fading. “A hundred years. It’s been so long. I knew it had been a while. Logically I knew more had happened than the destruction I could see when we left Hyrule Castle. That had already been there when I went in, now it’s just no longer burning. They’re all old now, and most of the people I called friends are dead or soon will be…”

Link didn’t know much about interpreting how people were feeling, but he could hear in her voice that Zelda was crying. “Let’s stop,” he said. He could tell Zelda so many wonderful things about the Hyrule that existed now, but he knew that she had probably been hoping that he would have awoken sooner. Maybe then, not so much would have been lost to time.

“Okay,” she said. She was definitely crying as she pulled her horse to a walk and then told her to stop. Link was off Epona in a moment, ready to help Zelda off her horse if necessary. Instead, she just accidentally kicked him in the face. “Sorry!” She jumped to the ground and immediately put her hands to his cheek. “I’m so sorry, Link. I can’t do anything right, even after all this…”

He didn’t mind that she was struggling, but he didn’t know how to say that. How could he tell her that it was okay if she was sad when he was beating himself up over not being enough? He couldn’t say he didn’t mind because then it would be admitting that there was something wrong with being upset. Everything she knew had changed, of course it was normal. “I think you’ve been strong,” he said. It was probably the wrong thing to say.

“I’m not strong enough for this,” she said. Link wanted to disagree, but she was probably right. He didn’t think anyone was strong enough to emerge into the world after fighting for so long. He didn’t think anyone would be able to do that and could then be expected to just move on.

“You don’t have to be,” he said. “We can go anywhere you like and do anything.” He wanted to go to his house and he wanted to get some of his memories back, but it could wait. Anything could wait if that was what it took for Zelda to be okay.

Zelda didn’t continue the conversation for a while. Instead, she moved to cry into his shoulder. Link couldn’t bring himself to mind. There were so many times over the last few months when he had longed for someone to cry on but there had been no one who understood. Then again, he couldn’t pretend he understood how Zelda was feeling, but he had a small idea of what was going on.

“I think I’m ready to go again,” Zelda said after a while. She was still sniffing a little, but the crying had stopped.

“Do you still want to go to Hateno Village?” He asked. He had realised that for the both of them, maybe not going to Hateno Fort would be a good idea. They could go to Kakariko Village and then cross the mountains, even though it would take much longer and they would probably need some warmer clothing.

“Can we go to Kakariko Village first?” She asked. “I want to see Impa. Even if...I know she’ll be old now. I can make fun of her, right? We can laugh together. And eat pumpkin stew.” Link nodded. “Providing they still make that.” He nodded again. He hoped that this really was the right choice for her. He didn’t want anything to hurt her more than she was already hurting.

“She looks different,” he said. Of course she would know that, but then...it was just a warning. “I remember her vaguely from seeing her through your eyes in that final memory. Is there any other time, anything else I’ll be able to find to remember her?”

“I spent a fair amount of time in Kakariko Village with you,” Zelda said. “There’s somewhere I absolutely have to show you. I bet there’s something you’ll be able to recall there, maybe if I talk about the event that would be prominent.”

Link wanted to know more about how he had been and he wanted to know about it now, but he knew better than to push Zelda into talking about something she didn’t want to talk about. So often, the memories had been sad. He knew that now, Zelda probably wouldn’t want to share anything that was painful. “Let’s go, then,” he said. “I think we should still make it to the stable by nightfall, and from there it’ll only be a short ride to Kakariko Village.”

As he moved to stand up and get the horses, Zelda caught his arm. “Thank you,” she said. “You know you don’t have to stay by my side, but you do anyway. And I appreciate that more than I can say, Link. Thank you.”

“It’s no problem,” he said. But really, he knew that if he tried to do anything without Zelda in mind, he would feel lost and empty. He felt like, without Zelda, he would probably be no one. He said it was no problem, but really he should be thanking her. “I care about you,” he managed. That was probably all he could ever manage to say along those lines. He would never be able to take that further step. “I won’t ever leave.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have so many feelings about Zelda and Link. Honestly. It tears me apart.


	4. Living

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link and Zelda eat together and think about what is to come.

It was actually fairly easy for them to reach the stable by nightfall, and if they’d carried on they probably would have made it to Kakariko Village, but Link thought that Zelda deserved a break, as did the horses. “We’re here,” he said, even though Zelda likely already knew that. After all, she could see the stable. “Do you want to head inside? I can buy our beds.”

“I can buy the beds,” Zelda said, holding out her hand for Link’s rupee purse. “Two standard beds, that’s forty rupees each, right? Or is it in total? I know you hate asking for the beds because they like to make conversation every single time you book, so let me.”

“In total,” he said with a smile. Zelda was running her mouth again, clearly. He didn’t really mind that she wanted to do things for him, but he was worried about her. He had no idea how much she could do in a single day and she was probably still very tired from fighting Ganon. He knew there was an ache in his bones that still wouldn’t go away and an urgency he couldn’t shake.

Ignoring his concern for now, he took the horses round to the side of the stable and rubbed them down before he fed them an apple each. They, at least, probably had no idea what was going on. They were fortunate because of that, he supposed. Epona had been in the centre of all of it, but she didn’t seem to bothered now. Nothing got to her.

Link wished he could be a little bit more like her. He was tired of the paranoia he felt even in the quietest moments and just sick of always being so exhausted. He needed to get more sleep, he’d barely snatched more than a couple of hours the night before because he just let Zelda sleep and took her watch for her.

Once he was done with the horses, he went back over to the stable. Zelda had already placed her pack on the bed next to the one she was sitting on, and she was sitting there, staring into space. She did that a lot, and Link always wanted to know what she was thinking about but never found the courage to ask.

“Oh, there you are,” Zelda said, catching sight of him eventually. He’d been standing at the entrance to the stable for a couple of minutes, knowing that he could just go in, but he was afraid that the air would be stifling and he’d need to leave again anyway. “Should we make dinner?”

That meant he would be making dinner because Zelda still didn’t really know how to cook, but she always watched. He liked to think she felt as if she was being included, though he knew she just really liked watching and thinking about what he was doing. Maybe one day she’d pick something up from him. He nodded, and they headed out to the cooking pot to make something nice.

There was something peaceful about sitting on the wooden floor of the stable inn, the two of them eating in near silence. There was nothing frantic about it. No fighting, no arguing, nothing hanging over their heads. “Can you tell me more about what it used to be like with the Sheikah?” From what he’d heard, the royal family of Hyrule had a rocky relationship with the Sheikah.

“It was hard at first,” Zelda said, immediately catching on to what Link wanted to know. She placed her bowl on the ground even though the food was only half finished. “My grandfather-” she laughed a little. “I don’t remember him quite as clearly as my grandmother, I’ll admit. The Sheikah were a constant sticking point with him, because his first child, my father’s elder sister, died while under the watch of a Sheikah doctor. He claimed that the Sheikah were selfish, keeping all their prowess to themselves. So he banished them from Castle Town, all of them.”

Link nodded. That was exactly what he had heard about happening, but it was nice to hear it as it happened. He’d received the impression that it was Zelda’s father who had banished the Sheikah, but then in the memories he never objected to their presence. “Some of them stayed, of course, in hiding.” Link was trying to pull up memories of Castle Town before it was destroyed, and Sheikah living there, but he couldn’t. “Some of them moved west and the others moved east. The ones who went west formed the Yiga Clan, and those who went east are what remain of the Sheikah now.”

“And that’s who we’re going to,” he said. He wondered just for a moment if the Yiga Clan were still around, and if they were doing anything other than eating bananas now their purpose had been ended.

Zelda nodded. “My father knew as soon as we started unearthing artefacts that we needed to befriend the Sheikah again. So he sent ambassadors. He didn’t trust them at first, but I...I like to think I did a lot of the relations between the two people. I always played with the granddaughter of the chief of the Sheikah tribe when she came to the castle. That was Impa, and we used to chase Purah round the gardens for hours.” She smiled at the memory, and then she picked her bowl up again. “I don’t know if I want to see Impa again. I’m scared, and I feel so terrible that she had to wait so long. It’s all my fault.” By the end, her voice was only a whisper again.

Link didn’t know what to do. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t know how when he could barely keep his own sadness to himself. Every time he heard her pained words, all he could think about were his own problems. He knew he needed to grow up and just help her already, but he didn’t know how. She deserved so much more than his silence or a few choice words he managed to force out. “It isn’t,” he said, putting his own, emptied bowl on the floor behind him. He quickly checked if there was anyone watching them and listening, and then he reached out to her.

He felt helplessly awkward sitting there, one arm stretched out to her, but after a few moments where neither of them moved, she moved a little closer to him so he had his arm around her shoulders. That time, he moved so it was more comfortable, and she leaned her head on him. “It’s so hard, Link,” she said. “I’m scared. I never wondered what would happen when we won.”

“Neither did I,” he said. He’d had no idea what he was doing for the whole time, honestly. There’d just been a connection to Zelda’s name, and then her face, and then he found people in Hyrule he knew didn’t deserve to suffer like they were suffering.

“I don’t remember how to live as a person anymore,” she said. Her voice was so quiet and he could see that she was about to cry, but he didn’t mind. He needed to change his tunic anyway. “I’m not sure I ever knew how.”

“We can learn,” he said, and she was crying now. He put his other arm around her because for once the action felt right. “We can learn, Zel. We can be two normal young adults living in my house in Hateno Village for a while, and we can both learn how to live like normal people. There’s a river right by my house. We can stand on the bridge and watch the sun set across the fields, and we can swim in the pools, and go down to the beach.”

Zelda continued to cry, but Link knew she just needed to get it out of her system again. They’d both lost so much. Ganon had stolen everything from them and neither of them really had a choice in the matter. From what Zelda told him about what he thought about his father, he imagined he had been bitter about that. He knew from the memories he had recovered that Zelda loved Hyrule, but she resented all the pressure. They’d both had so much stolen from them just because they were the ones who were meant to save Hyrule.

When she was done, she didn’t say any more, and neither did he. They didn’t need to, he didn’t think. He just kept his arm around her shoulder and led her outside so they could both sit on the grass together and watch the stars for a bit. They stayed silent and watched the world go by. Link listened to the sounds of the bugs in the grass, remembering hours and hours of hiding in fields waiting for monsters to leave or go to sleep.

Now, though, it was peaceful. He found he liked listening to the sounds of the world when his life didn’t depend on it. He liked sitting with Zelda, neither of them doing all that much. He hoped there could be many more nights like this, just without the crying that came before, or the need to make speeches. He felt utterly drained because of that.

“Thank you,” Zelda murmured once the moon was high in the sky. Most of Link’s arm had completely gone to sleep because she was lying on it, but he didn’t mind. It was nice to see her relaxing. “We should sleep now if we want to continue in the morning.”

Link wanted to point out that Kakariko was very close to where they were now and they would make it in no time, but he wasn’t going to be picky. Also, he still didn’t think he could muster any words. Zelda understood, though, just standing up. Now she was holding onto his hand as he stayed sitting, but the gesture didn’t embarrass him as much as it probably should have. Her holding his hand almost seemed normal, now.

“Come on,” she said gently. “We can stargaze tomorrow night, if you wish, but I know you’re always a dead weight to get out of bed if you were tired.” Link wondered how she knew that for a moment, because these days he always woke from nightmares, but he remembered that she knew so much more about him than he did himself.

He just nodded, letting her pull him up and lead him to bed. Goddesses, he’d follow her anywhere. He just hoped that the coming day wouldn’t be too hard on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never once used the inns! So I kinda had to ask a friend how much the beds cost...


	5. Kakariko

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link and Zelda suffer from nightmares, they talk, and then they have to move on.

Link woke up with a start. Nightmares, again, but the details faded as soon as he tried to grasp them. He just had to breathe, and with it the visions of the dead and the dying would go away.

Zelda, face down, blood spilling into the water. Seven arrows in her back. She was floating, but she was face down and not struggling and he knew she was gone.

No. He had to breathe. In, and out. And then in again. And out. In, out. In. Out. He needed to calm down.

Urbosa fried by electricity, her body still twitching on the ground even though life had left her completely. Daruk, crushed somewhere as the beast he had so loved to pilot went dark around him. Revali, battered and falling to the bottom of a chasm. In his dreams, Revali often woke up halfway down and found himself unable to right himself.

And Mipha. Mipha, who smiled so gently. Mipha, who touched his arm so softly but he could still feel the remnants of her touch. He might have been in love with her once, he thought. Maybe. The problem was that now he just couldn’t know. Because he didn’t remember, and the Zora didn’t seem to remember all that well how it had really been. He didn’t love her anymore, but he’d clearly known her and he felt the loss so strongly.

He just needed to breathe. He needed to breathe, he needed to calm down. He turned over, fearing that Zelda would be gone, or face down in a pool of blood dead dead dead again he couldn’t save anyone- she was lying there, her eyes wide open. She was watching him as he panicked. “Link,” she whispered. Her voice speaking his name was so familiar. “Do you want to go outside?”

He nodded and moved as quietly as he could. There were other people in the inn and it wasn’t fair on them if he got them all up just because of a stupid nightmare. The panic was almost all gone now (it wasn’t gone at all), so there was no sense in even getting Zelda up. He turned back to the entrance of the stable to tell her to go back to bed, but she was already coming out to join him on the grass.

“Tell me?” Zelda suggested, her voice still so soft. She was so close he could feel the warmth from her body, and he was reminded of how cold it was out here. He would have to finish up quickly so they could both go back to their warm bed.

“Okay,” he said, and he told her. He told her about how he saw them all dying, and then how he saw her dying. The scene felt just as real as all the others, but it was the only one that hadn’t happened. He was scared that she was going to die. It was hard to tell her about all of it and keep it all together. He still couldn’t speak like he wanted to, and feeling emotions just caused so much conflict inside him that he just felt like closing up. But he managed to keep going, and he felt a little better by the end.

Zelda shivered in the cold night air. “Thank you,” she said, and she leaned over to put her head on his shoulder. “Thank you for telling me. I’m not going to leave you any time soon, and I have faith in you. I know you can do this, because you never faltered before, and we just faced up to the most powerful being that we could ever come across, so I think we’re okay.” She laughed a little at that, and Link managed a smile. He didn’t want to get too cocky, but it would be nice if they didn’t have to worry anymore.

“Thanks,” he said after a while. He was very aware that Zelda was really starting to get cold and they should probably head back into the stables. Her getting ill would not be good, and he didn’t really know how to care for people when they were ill. “We should go back to bed. Unless-” it was difficult to ask something of her.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Why were you awake when I woke up?” He asked. He regretted asking instantly, because Zelda’s face fell.

“I had a terrible dream too,” she said. “And I always worry that my dreams will come true. Did you have prophetic dreams before Ganon arose?” Link nodded. “I was dreaming about an army of monsters on a last ditch effort to take us with their dead master. And they...they killed you and left me all alone.”

Link pulled his arms tighter around her. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere, okay? And you’re not going anywhere either. Can we make that a deal?” He felt so silly, trying to make light of it, but that was all he could think to do.

Zelda just attempted a shaky smile and nodded. “I think I can do that.”

-

Their discussion still lingered in the morning, but Link’s fears were mostly chased away by the sunrise. They were still there, of course; they were never really gone. But now he felt a little more sure about what was going to happen, at least in the immediate future.

There was no stable in Kakariko Village, but it was safe to take the horses over there. Link was sure the villagers would be happy to take their horses for a short while. Zelda was the princess, after all, and there were a few people in the village who would remember her. The ride up to Kakariko was warm, and pleasant, and very quiet. It was nice.

Still, though, the silence lingered. Zelda was worried, and Link knew she had good reason to be. Impa was old now, and she had a grandchild. Zelda, if she had been her age, would be dead by now, and she would have a grandchild or even a great grandchild by now. She must feel as if she had cheated the world by being away from Hyrule’s people in their darkest hours. Link knew he felt much the same way.

Getting into the village, Link could feel his own nervousness building. Though many of the people in the village knew nothing of what Zelda looked like, they worked out who she was almost instantly. It was clear to Zelda, too, who stopped Link instantly after only a few paces into the village. “We need to get off our horses,” she said. “I don’t want to stride in on a horse like some high and mighty ruler.”

Link didn’t want to tell her that the Sheikah were probably expecting her to be exactly that, because he didn’t want to put pressure on her either way. He didn’t want her to feel like she had to be a ruler, but he also didn’t want her to worry that she was too much of an authority figure to some people. He just nodded and hopped off Epona, taking her by the reins to lead her the rest of the way.

“Ohayōgozaimasu!” Zelda called to the people standing at the side of the road, and they waved to her and called back. Link just looked at her, and she shrugged. He recognised the greeting from his visits before, but he had no idea what it actually meant. “It means good morning, Link. You...I think you used to know that.” Link felt a sudden pain in his chest, but there was nothing he could do about something like that.

“Let’s keep going,” he said. He wanted to see Impa, and suddenly he just wanted to get away from here as quickly as possible. There must be so much about the Sheikah that he had just completely forgotten. It made him feel sick. “If you want to go in alone, I can take the horses out to graze in the forest.” He nodded up the hill.

Zelda shook her head. “I think it would be better if you’re there,” she said. Link tried his best to ignore the part of him that was telling him to protest. Zelda was the princess and he was her knight and he was supposed to do what she asked him to. He just nodded. He didn’t trust himself to say anything.

They walked through the village in silence, and when they reached the steps up to Impa’s house, he passed the reins of the horses over to Cado. Link could see Zelda ignoring his bow to her, which, to him, looked rude. “Sorry,” he mumbled to the man as he passed. “She just doesn’t want people to bow to her when she doesn’t lead anything yet.” He avoided saying anymore, just in case she heard. It was better to think of it as if she would one day rule, not as if she once had and never would again.

Cado just nodded, and Link hurried up the steps after Zelda. He was now very nervous for her reaction. She didn’t deserve to be upset, but he knew she would be. He didn’t know how to deal with all these emotions.

He didn’t know how to deal with hearing Zelda’s choked sob when she recognised Impa. Because he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to see the way she didn’t recognise her at first until Impa confirmed that it was in fact her. He didn’t want to see the way Zelda’s collected bravery just fell away as she fell onto her knees, unable to stop crying.

He didn’t want to see it, so he ran down the steps before anyone could even see he’d followed her. He felt awful, but he had to. He felt like a coward, but he ran away anyway and sat on a cliff overlooking the village. Zelda didn’t come looking for him immediately, so she was probably okay. Probably.

Link felt like the worst appointed knight ever. He had failed Zelda again. He wasn’t good enough to be with her, he knew that. He wasn’t good enough to be her company and she should probably find someone else who was more competent. He was sure there were plenty of Sheikah who could do that, or maybe a Gerudo woman. As far as he could remember, Zelda got on well with them (she’d loved Urbosa like a mother; he remembered crying about how he could never experience that feeling ever again after he remembered that).

Zelda could do a lot better than him. But still, he didn’t want her to replace him. He knew it would be better for her, safer, and he should want her to have someone better, but he needed her far more than she needed him. He needed the stability of her expectations. If he didn’t have a purpose… He just wished he wasn’t so bad at fulfilling his purpose.

-

Zelda came to fetch him a lot later. She didn’t say anything when she came to get him, but he knew she would want to talk about it later. He had failed, after all, and he’d gone against what she asked him to do. He’d calmed down, but all his fears were renewed at the sight of her.

“I wanted to show you the place where I thought you might remember something with enough prompting,” Zelda said. “We can talk about earlier later; are you ready to go and see this now?”

“I think so,” he said, and Zelda started leading him up to the highest point above the village. From there, you could see the fairy fountain, and he’d always felt a strange draw to the place. Zelda was a surprisingly able climber once it was clear where to put her hands and feet, so they were up in no time.

The pair of them sat on top of the ridge, and Zelda moved him so he was looking towards the village. “We used to sit here basically every day,” she said. “We started here as our first base when we wanted to go up to Death Mountain or Zora’s Domain, and I tended to come here if I just wanted to get away.”

“What was the thing you thought I might remember?” Link asked. Zelda let out a short huff.

“I was getting to that. The time I was thinking of was when we came here to rest after we came back from Gerudo Desert. I didn’t want to return home and I didn’t want anyone to tell my father that we were back early, so I asked you if we could make camp here. Do you remember?”

Link closed his eyes, thinking about the pull on his mind that drew him to this place. He took a deep breath, knowing that the moment he opened his eyes he would probably be swept away to another time.

He opened his eyes, and he remembered.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, a comment would be really appreciated :) I love writing but it's always wonderful to get feedback.


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